Endophytic Bacteria of Cotton and Sweet Corn for Providing Growth Promotion and Biological Disease Control

Endophytes were isolated from 16.7% of surface-disinfested seeds and 100% of stems and roots of field-growth plants. Strains from Israel with broad-spectrum in vitro antibiosis were mainly Bacillus spp., and some were chitinolytic. Following dipping of cut cotton roots into suspensions of these strains, endophytes were detected up to 72 days later by isolation and by autoradiograms of 14C-labelled bacteria. Selected endophytes exhibited biological control potential based on significant reductions in disease severity on cotton inoculated with Rhizoctonia solani or Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum as well as control of Sclerotium rolfsii on bean. Neither salicylic acid nor chitinase levels increased in plants as a result of endophytic colonization, suggesting that the observed biocontrol was not accounted for by PR protein production. Some biocontrol endophytes secreted chitinolytic enzymes. Model endophytic strains inoculated into cotton stems via stem injection showed only limited movement within the stem. When introduced into stems at low concentrations, endophytes increased in population density at the injection site. After examining several experimental and semi-practical inoculation systems, seed treatment was selected as an efficient way to reintroduce most endophytes into plants.